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Marines Being Kept Busy in Baghdad

Aired April 15, 2003 - 13:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's go to Baghdad, a city still trying to get back on its feet. That's probably a bit of an understatement. Our Christiane Amanpour is there. Christiane, are things coming together yet in Baghdad?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In little steps, yes. The Marines who are in charge here of most of the east side of the city are doing quite a lot of work. But it is little steps. In fact, in their word, which they love to use, baby steps. But as you yourself mentioned, there is quite a lot of tension still.

This morning in the early hours, Marines basically coming in, kicking some of the doors down, guns, looking for people, looking for weapons apparently. They apparently found a weapons cache in a building not too far from this hotel.

But esentially it still remains, despite that exploratory political meet down in Nasiriya today, it still remains a political and security vacuum certainly around the capital. And this is now what the Marines are stepping in to, to try to do some civil administration.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR (voice-over): From fighting force to restoring civil order, the U.S. Marines in Baghdad are trying to make that transition and help Iraq get back on its feet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Easy. Let's do it.

AMANPOUR: Here, the Marines have brought together many engineers and administrators from the Ministry of Water. Restoring that basic amenity is a priority.

(on camera): The U.S. Marine Corps wrote the book on restoring civil order after wars. It's called "The Small Wars Manual." And they've never done anything this big before. Baghdad alone is a city of 5 million people. It's going to be, they say, a gigantic task.

LT. COL. BRYAN MCCOY, U.S. MARINE CORPS: I have no idea. I've never done this before. And -- but we're chipping away at it. We're making great progress today.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Colonel McCoy's Marines are also now stepping in to some police work. Here, stopping a robbery at the Iraqi Central Bank.

LT. EDWARD LANGELLO, U.S. MARINE CORPS: These guys had brand-new bills, dollars, whatever they call them, dinar, I believe they call them. They had stacks of dinar in their pockets, which were brand- new. And they came out of the vault which was on fire, had just recently had been blown. So, two and two together, they're robbers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, get up.

LANGELLO: Basically, we're sending the message that, hey, you can't do this in Iraq. It's over.

AMANPOUR: And that's certainly what most residents want to hear. Every day, from just about everyone we meet, we hear urgent demands for more security.

Meantime, the Baghdad police force is still trying to organize itself for the first foot patrols on to the streets of their newly liberated city. Some have this message for the U.S.

CAPT. AHMED GALAH, IRAQI POLICE FORCE: Iraqi people don't want Americans to stay here.

AMANPOUR (on camera): But why not?

GALAH: They could -- they came here to -- liberation, OK? Not to stay here.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): It's a message that's not lost on Colonel McCoy and his team.

MCCOY: One day we're a liberator, the next day we're an occupying force, which nobody wants, to be occupied. That can be six months or it can be six days. A lot of it has to do with whether we're perceived as ugly Americans, whether we try and present ourselves as authority figures. And the key to that is getting control back into the Iraqi's people hands.

AMANPOUR: Fresh from that robbery that continued after the Marines left, Lieutenant Edward Langello has a blunter message for the Iraqis.

LANGELLO: You need to get up, you, the Iraqi people, need to get up and start taking charge of your own nation. I mean America did that a long time ago and look where we are today.

AMANPOUR: Perhaps reflecting the U.S. administration's vision of trying to reconstruct the Middle East in its own image.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Now, they do want to get up and try to organize their future. We hear from any number of people about how they're trying to look towards a political future and a new order here. They're just needing, still, to see some structure, some order, some security and also the rebuilding of all sorts of brokendown basic amenities. So there's quite a lot of work still to be done in the capital.

Around other parts of the country, people are sort of coming together and trying to rebuild parts of their cities. And, of course, as the major war fighting appears to be over, there's still a lot of, quote, "mopping up" as the U.S. military likes to call it, and there are still security issues for the U.S. military as well here -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Christiane Amanpour in Baghdad, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired April 15, 2003 - 13:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's go to Baghdad, a city still trying to get back on its feet. That's probably a bit of an understatement. Our Christiane Amanpour is there. Christiane, are things coming together yet in Baghdad?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In little steps, yes. The Marines who are in charge here of most of the east side of the city are doing quite a lot of work. But it is little steps. In fact, in their word, which they love to use, baby steps. But as you yourself mentioned, there is quite a lot of tension still.

This morning in the early hours, Marines basically coming in, kicking some of the doors down, guns, looking for people, looking for weapons apparently. They apparently found a weapons cache in a building not too far from this hotel.

But esentially it still remains, despite that exploratory political meet down in Nasiriya today, it still remains a political and security vacuum certainly around the capital. And this is now what the Marines are stepping in to, to try to do some civil administration.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR (voice-over): From fighting force to restoring civil order, the U.S. Marines in Baghdad are trying to make that transition and help Iraq get back on its feet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Easy. Let's do it.

AMANPOUR: Here, the Marines have brought together many engineers and administrators from the Ministry of Water. Restoring that basic amenity is a priority.

(on camera): The U.S. Marine Corps wrote the book on restoring civil order after wars. It's called "The Small Wars Manual." And they've never done anything this big before. Baghdad alone is a city of 5 million people. It's going to be, they say, a gigantic task.

LT. COL. BRYAN MCCOY, U.S. MARINE CORPS: I have no idea. I've never done this before. And -- but we're chipping away at it. We're making great progress today.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Colonel McCoy's Marines are also now stepping in to some police work. Here, stopping a robbery at the Iraqi Central Bank.

LT. EDWARD LANGELLO, U.S. MARINE CORPS: These guys had brand-new bills, dollars, whatever they call them, dinar, I believe they call them. They had stacks of dinar in their pockets, which were brand- new. And they came out of the vault which was on fire, had just recently had been blown. So, two and two together, they're robbers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, get up.

LANGELLO: Basically, we're sending the message that, hey, you can't do this in Iraq. It's over.

AMANPOUR: And that's certainly what most residents want to hear. Every day, from just about everyone we meet, we hear urgent demands for more security.

Meantime, the Baghdad police force is still trying to organize itself for the first foot patrols on to the streets of their newly liberated city. Some have this message for the U.S.

CAPT. AHMED GALAH, IRAQI POLICE FORCE: Iraqi people don't want Americans to stay here.

AMANPOUR (on camera): But why not?

GALAH: They could -- they came here to -- liberation, OK? Not to stay here.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): It's a message that's not lost on Colonel McCoy and his team.

MCCOY: One day we're a liberator, the next day we're an occupying force, which nobody wants, to be occupied. That can be six months or it can be six days. A lot of it has to do with whether we're perceived as ugly Americans, whether we try and present ourselves as authority figures. And the key to that is getting control back into the Iraqi's people hands.

AMANPOUR: Fresh from that robbery that continued after the Marines left, Lieutenant Edward Langello has a blunter message for the Iraqis.

LANGELLO: You need to get up, you, the Iraqi people, need to get up and start taking charge of your own nation. I mean America did that a long time ago and look where we are today.

AMANPOUR: Perhaps reflecting the U.S. administration's vision of trying to reconstruct the Middle East in its own image.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Now, they do want to get up and try to organize their future. We hear from any number of people about how they're trying to look towards a political future and a new order here. They're just needing, still, to see some structure, some order, some security and also the rebuilding of all sorts of brokendown basic amenities. So there's quite a lot of work still to be done in the capital.

Around other parts of the country, people are sort of coming together and trying to rebuild parts of their cities. And, of course, as the major war fighting appears to be over, there's still a lot of, quote, "mopping up" as the U.S. military likes to call it, and there are still security issues for the U.S. military as well here -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Christiane Amanpour in Baghdad, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com